The Gossip Board

[Anastasia]

Kamvakua's up to the plate, oh and he takes a mighty swing! Contact! It's a high fly ball, deep and going back. Back, back, back at the wall...it's off the wall! Kamvakua's going around second! He's in there with a stand up double!

The Lady of the Lake is an alternate title for Queen Morwel. She has a lot of honorifics as the Queen of the Eladrin, though Kam doesn't know the details there.

(Others can roll if they want to as well to uncover more info.)

[Dracos]

So I guess it is queen Morwel.  Oh well.

[VySaika]

> I should probably roll as well, I suppose
<Xorned> Back.
<Xorned> Go for it.
> roll 1d20+9 kitchen patrol
* Hatbot --> "Gatewalker rolls 1d20+9 kitchen patrol and gets 12." [1d20=3]
> adail is not very good at K:P duty
<Xorned> Ouch. Post it.

[Anastasia]

Here comes the pitch, it's a blazing fastball! Adail swings and makes contact...it's a high, lazy popup...and it's caught by Rogue. Two outs. Next up to bat is Nikkolai, can he drive the run home?

(Whiff.)

[Zephyrus]

My, my. There has been some serious discussion in my absence and I'm rather sorry to have missed it.

Well, I'll toss in my two cents, for what little it's worth.

To be honest, I feel that I have to agree with Kam on the chase scene as far as actually chasing after Knight went. It really made no sense that she should get so far ahead of us, especially with Kam's WTFMEGAPWN speed and roving.

As for the confusion...it really made for a disjointed first half of a session, in my opinion. As Gate noted, I feel that we're decent enough gamers that we can refrain from indulging in our desire to metagame (even if it's an unconscious desire). So while the confusion actually served its purpose to well, confuse us, I don't think it was needed.

The PvP was a pain in the ass. I'm sorry, it was. I don't like it nor do I ever wish to engage in it again, simply because it's damned difficult to subdue a PC without killing them, which needlessly drags out the session. Our time could have been spent doing something more productive. I won't comment on the grapple rules mainly because as relatively newbie player, I don't have a good grasp of them. I'm beginning to think that I'm just going to keep rolling caster classes to prevent myself from actually having to deal with them.

Rogue...ye gods, I'm not even sure how to comment on him from Nikki's perspective. I'll give it a stab.

Nik has been trying to metamorphose into a better person. Well, not better, but perhaps a more fully functioning psychopath. Occasionally, he still has his setbacks, as you all have seen in the dream-reward session. Nik's attitude there was mostly an attempt on his part to control his fear and pain at the memories that his time spend at the Lich's dwelling inflicted on him. Don't mistake Nik's gradually lightening nature as weakness or even a desire to become "good". He's merely decided that friends can be an asset and not a weakness. He will still do everything in his power to keep them safe and alive, but everyone else can pretty much go to hell.

I feel that this explains Nik's quicksilver mentality when he first met Rogue. To be perfectly honest, he doesn't give a damn about the moral quandry surround Rogue or his desire for personal freedom. He merely recalled Knight's desire to reunite the deck and responded accordingly, at first, with the threat of violence if Rogue did not comply with Knight's wishes. The fact that Rogue meddled with Knight's head probably also contributed towards his vicious manner.

But when he heard Rogue's declaration against slavery in general, his self-preservation instincts kicked into overdrive. He did an immediate about face and became the reasonable diplomat. I'm surprised that Rogue bought it so easily, even with my Diplo-Tanks skills. His thoughts are to use Rogue as best as he can and then, one way or another, reunite him with Knight or however she wishes to deal with the situation.

While I'm pushing for a confrontation with the Lich (admittedly, it's rather selfish of me) I'm afraid that she really might be more than we can handle, unless I can somehow secure a few more allies with a little more power besides a middle class Fey Lord and a single Card. On the other hand, I'm eagerly looking forward to the battle. I've got a grand speech written in my head and everything. I've even written down a few witty one-liners.

To conclude, the session overall was rather meh. The GM derpage was partly my fault as well. How did I not know the powers of my own familiar? Way to fail, Nik.

[Zephyrus]

 22:27  +Hatbot          › --> "Zephyrus rolls 1d20+10 Do I know anything about the Lake Queen Chick? and gets 22." [1d20=12]

[Anastasia]

Nikkolai's at the plate! A pitch and...strike 1! Another pitch...strike 2! 0-2, 2 outs! Can he do it? The money pitch...a swing...oh, he made contact! It's a shot into left-center field...the center fielder is running and making a dive at it...oh, he can't quite get there in time, it's going back to warning track! That's an easy double for Nikkolai and Kamvakua's driven in!

Queen Morwel has strong ties to the Seelie Court, who have bestowed on her the title of 'Lady of the Lake.'.

(OOC: I figured you played off Kam's knowledge, which was enough to help you uncover more information. Basically building off each other here.)

[Zephyrus]

So I mentioned a few ideas on how to properly use Lord Balinbomb once we found out who the Lake Lady is.

22:47   Zephyrus        • I was thinking of using him several ways:
22:47   Zephyrus        • 1: A distraction
22:47   MagicalGirlSierra • Being tied to a coalition of good fey doesn't mean he won't get cranky when some punk kid blunders into his realm and insults him.
22:47  @Kotono          • (Fey politics are a bit on the complex side and more complex than I care to get into, but basically.)
22:47   Zephyrus        • 2: A way to steal the kid from the Lich for us
22:48   Zephyrus        • 3: I was thinking of exchanging myself for the kid, then having Balinbomb port me out of there.
22:48   Zephyrus        • Or 4: Have Balinbomb introduce me to some heavy firepower Seelie

Comments? Suggestions?

Also, I can now give out a little info on the Lich, the phylactery, and Nik's hometown. Let me know how you want me to answer, either IC or OOC.

[Carthrat]

Before we can really plan anything well there are a few things we need to identify. Well, we can hardly know everything, but this is what I'd be looking at finding out if possible.

1) How personally powerful is the lich, roughly? What kind of magic does she use?
2) Does she have any weaknesses apart from those common to the undead condition?
3) Where is she, and what's that area like? Does she have a fixed, secure abode? What kind of defenses does she have there?
4) What's she actually doing, lately? Does she have plans we can interfere with, or is she sort of just loitering around waiting for heroes to gank her?
5) Who are her allies? How powerful are they? How loyal are they; why do they work with her?
6) Who are her enemies? How powerful are they? Why do they hate her; why haven't they done anything yet?
7) What are our existing allies willing and able to contribute to this? Angel cavalry? Blessings? Healing potions? The casting of useful spells?

[Dracos]

Not IC and all...but I'll be pretty sad if we left an overcomplicated war scenario for being something we didn't want to focus on to ENTER an overcomplicated war scenario.  I suppose few steps have been taken there but when I'm seeing calling in Seelie, gathering up allies, pulling in angel cavalry...well, it's really starting to feel like just the thing we left in hardsoil.  I'll think IC later, but really just tossing that out there.

[Zephyrus]

Before we can really plan anything well there are a few things we need to identify. Well, we can hardly know everything, but this is what I'd be looking at finding out if possible.

1) How personally powerful is the lich, roughly? What kind of magic does she use?
From what Nikk can tell, she's pretty damn tough. There's no fixed area she excels at, from what he can tell. He's seen her teleport miles in an instant. She can use fire and ice spells to deadly effect. She's quite good at summoning (Which is where Nik gained an affinity for it, I think), and is capable of banishing creatures even if they're not on the same plane with her. Scary.

2) Does she have any weaknesses apart from those common to the undead condition?
Perhaps only the phylactery, but other than that, Nik doesn't know of anything.

3) Where is she, and what's that area like? Does she have a fixed, secure abode? What kind of defenses does she have there?
The city where she and I lived was called Amlyn. It was a rather prosperous duchy in a feudal styled kingdom. That makes since indeed when you note that Nik *is* capable is capable of using flowery court speech when the occasion warrants it. When Nik was under her thrall, they lived in Verzweiflung, a secluded abode with deep basements beneath a mansion. Of course, he burnt that down on his way out of town, so where she actually is now is something that we'd need to find out. I can give more details on Amlyn if needed.

4) What's she actually doing, lately? Does she have plans we can interfere with, or is she sort of just loitering around waiting for heroes to gank her?
Dunno.

5) Who are her allies? How powerful are they? How loyal are they; why do they work with her?
On this, Nik can only speculate. He's seen her host everything from Drow to undead at one time or another. He's even seen devils and demons both, as well as more horrible creatures like the Yugoloth and others that he has no name for. He knows from experience that the Lady is a master negotiator and very adept at maneuvering people into saying and doing precisely what she wants them to. Her allies could be willing or not so willing. Who knows?

6) Who are her enemies? How powerful are they? Why do they hate her; why haven't they done anything yet?
Dunno. The only enemy Nik knows of is Nik himself at the moment. And he's been too damn scared to even think of doing anything for the last year or so.

7) What are our existing allies willing and able to contribute to this? Angel cavalry? Blessings? Healing potions? The casting of useful spells?
So far we have on our side:
*One Fey Lord - abilities and contributions unknown
*One Card (Rogue) - Abilities and alliance unknown

As for Drac's observation...that's all well and good, but do you really want to face a Lich *without* allies at our side? Feel free to go charging in by yourself and get hexxed. Nikk has no problem using many, many allies to help him out. >_>

[Dracos]

I totally don't mind us getting allies for a lich fight.  Allies yes, armies, squadrons, groups of ten, etc, not so much.  D&D isn't a system where numbers tend to matter, just usually being on the same raw power level or close or you get stomped easily.  I like that the game mostly has focused on us doing things rather than us having people do things for us.  In that line, I'd rather go with lines of strategy where we figure out how to make it happen with ourselves, not how we make someone else take her out.  It'd be pretty lame to finish your archrival by parking a squad of celestials at her front door. narratively speaking.

What does banish someone not on the same plane mean?  Isn't that just banning entry?

[Zephyrus]

 22:13   Kotono          • A lich can make a new plyactery if one is destroyed, but they have no way of knowing if it is or not. This tends to be compounded by the fact that liches treat their plyactheries with warding magic, which makes their own attempts to track it down often difficult. To destroy her you'll need to destroy her physical body then her plyachtery within a week or she'll reform.

[Sierra]

Good to know! And, seconding everything Drac just said. We already made one recruitment drive. This feels like something we should take care of ourselves.

[Carthrat]

I want to do what it takes to win. If we can do it ourselves, sure ok let's go. If allies are there for the recruiting, I'm for doing that. I don't mean to go on some big recruitment drive and pull giant armies up, but I have no compunction against asking various people for help if they're there to be asked (see: goodly planar lords of vast power and resources; other people the lich has hurt in the past).

To clarify here btw, yeah, I do prefer when we're integral to dealing with shit. I'm not really expecting angel cavalry (although I wouldn't say no), but anything that might help us. For instance, we know she can teleport, and there's no point fighting her if she can easily run away, so something to counteract that would be nice. And so on.